A pet shop manager has been caught attempting to steal a penguin from a zoo in southern Japan. A security guard at the Nagasaki Bio Park noticed Akira Honda, 24, ushering the Humboldt Penguin into his suitcase in January. According to the zoo, the penguin is worth about Y400,000 (£2,960).Mr Honda told police that he had run up debts which he intended to pay off by selling the creature to a collector.

Humboldt Penguins are native to South America and grow to around 27 inches tall and up to 13lb in weight. They are currently listed as vulnerable, due largely to the destruction of their habitats, and an estimated 12,000 survive in the wild.Police investigating the case have since determined that Mr Honda began his pet theft spree in November by snatching a capybara – worth some Y150,000 (£1,100) – from the animal petting section of Uninonakamichi Seaside Park in Fukuoka.More

Crouching tiger, hidden species? Siberian creatures welcome in the Year of the Tiger as China worries about their extinction
The sight of tigers in the wild in China is becoming increasingly rare, but there are hundreds in zoos around the country.So as the country came to a standstill this weekend to celebrate Chinese New Year, and see in the Year of the Tiger, it seemed only natural to use several Siberian tigers to welcome visitors to a zoo in Fuzhou in southeast China’s Fujian province.However, the tigers’ poses were far from natural, as they were cruelly forced into a series of poses as they made their greeting.Sitting on their hind legs with their paws in the air, the tigers were made to hold the poses for a lengthy period of time as visitors entered the zoo.

Standing out from the crowd has taken on a whole new meaning for Thorn, the tallest giraffe at England’s Chester zoo. Thorn gets daily pedicures from zookeepers, and unlike other giraffes that take anesthetics for similar treatment, he goes into each session wide awake.So how does this Rothschild giraffe stay unruffled during the procedure? Zookeepers use a pioneering training technique that involves voice commands and food rewards to get Thorn to cooperate. Over the past 12 months since they first started the process, Thorn has learned to stay put for 10 to 15 minutes at a time.

“At first it took some getting used to,” keeper Lizzie Bowen says of Thorn’s reaction to the pedicures. “It took us six months before we trained him to rest his foot long enough for us to be able to rasp his foot.” But Thorn grew increasingly comfortable with the presence of zoo staff. “He remains calm around them. It has become part of his routine now,”More

Japanese panda fans will be able to see the endangered animals in Tokyo next year for the first time since 2008, after the city reached an agreement to pay nearly $1 million a year to borrow a pair from China, officials said Friday.Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo has been without a giant panda for the first time since 1972, when a pair arrived to mark the signing of a peace treaty between Japan and China. Ling Ling, a panda who came to Tokyo in 1992, died in April 2008 at the age of 22, which in human terms is equivalent to about 70.

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara told reporters Friday that two pandas are expected to arrive in Tokyo early next year and would cost $950,000 a year.”It’s quite a costly deal,” Ishihara said, adding that Tokyo officials bargained to get $50,000 off the original $1 million price tag. The payments will help rebuild a panda sanctuary in China’s Sichuan province and fund joint breeding projects between Japan and China, he said.More

An amorous tortoise aged 70 has been entertaining visitors at a zoo thanks to his public displays of affection ‘Dirty Dirk’, the Galapagos tortoise, who weighs 31 stone, has been paying particular attention to Dolly, 14, and Dolores, 10.Sebastian Grant, Giant Tortoise keeper at London Zoo, said: “He’s called Dirk because he was so amorous from the moment he got here – literally minutes. “We named him after Dirk Diggler of Boogie Nights. He’s earned his name, and he’s quite willing to go as long as the girls will let him.”More

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The hippo, named Nikica, escaped its pen as heavy rains in the south-eastern European country caused the flooding of the zoo.But the owners of the complex hosting the zoo said there was no reason for panic.He sometimes escapes his habitat when the water levels rise and this is not unusual,” Nikola Pejovic, one of the owners of the complex, told AFP.

Mr Pejovic said that the two-tonne beast “usually walks along [an] already known path, about one kilometer (0.6miles) long, towards neighbouring houses” in the village of Plavnica on Lake Skadar.”Nikica is their regular guest and locals are completely used to him,” Mr Pejovic said.The hippo’s movements have been followed by the zoo’s private security, Mr Pejovic said, adding that the animal “is extremely tame and peaceful”.More